International scientific journal

ISSN: 2663-0419 (electronic version)

ISSN: 2218-8754 (print version)

International scientific journal

ISSN: 2663-0419 (electronic version)

ISSN: 2218-8754 (print version)

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SCImago Journal & Country Rank
№ Special Issue, 2026
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Ecological transformation of Azerbaijan’s regions: A linguistic analysis of state strategies and programs

Karimova N.E.¹*, Rustamova L.M.¹, Bashirova G.R.²˒³, Hasanaliyeva L.H.⁴

¹Mingachevir State University, Azerbaijan
21, D. Aliyeva Street, Mingachevir, AZ4500
²Azerbaijan State Marine Academy, Azerbaijan
18, Zarifa Aliyeva Street, Baku, AZ1000
³Institute of Geography, Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan
117, H. Javid Ave., Baku, AZ1073
⁴Baku State University, Azerbaijan
23, Zahid Khalilov Street, Baku, AZ1148

*Corresponding author: nargiz.karimova@mdu.edu.az

DOI: 10.33677/GIANASCONF20260300021


 

Summary

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Climate-policy documents do more than report environmental conditions: they select problems, assign responsibility, and construct preferred futures. This study examines how green transition and regional resilience are linguistically framed in three English-language documents central to Azerbaijan's climate-development agenda: the Updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 2.0, 2023), Azerbaijan's NDC 3.0 (2025), and the World Bank Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR, 2023). A corpus-assisted ecolinguistic design was applied to a 70,440-token corpus. Four lexical frames - risk and vulnerability, adaptation and resilience, green transition, and participation and inclusion - were measured through normalized frequency per 10,000 tokens. Three modality categories - obligation and necessity, commitment and futurity, and possibility and capacity - were also examined. The distribution of frame tokens was tested using chi-square and Cramér's V. Green-transition vocabulary dominated all documents, but its salience increased from 92.40 in NDC 2.0 to 182.33 in NDC 3.0. The CCDR foregrounded risk and vulnerability (76.36) and adaptation and resilience (44.66), whereas NDC 3.0 recorded the strongest participation and inclusion score (60.91) and the highest commitment and futurity score (155.18). Frame distributions differed significantly, chi-square = 143.23, df = 6, p < .001; V = .186. The findings indicate a shift in national discourse toward integrated decarbonization, implementation commitments, and inclusive governance, while the international diagnostic genre emphasizes exposure, uncertainty, and enabling capacity. The study recommends clearer, more participatory, and locally meaningful climate communication.

Keywords: climate communication, institutional modality, lexical salience, stakeholder inclusion, sustainable development

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DOI: 10.33677/GIANASCONF20260300021